The Next Twitter: Pay Attention To Hot Potato, A New 'Real-Time' Startup

The hot story in tech right now is "real-time," thanks to Twitter
and Facebook, so you're going to hear a lot of noise over the
next few years about "real-time" tech startups. Most of them will
be useless and will flame out.

But here's one that we think could actually be pretty cool: It's
called Hot Potato, and it
launches today. The main idea: It's an iPhone app (and Web site)
designed for people to chat about live events.

Specifically:

It is for people to talk about the same concert they're at,
the same football game they're watching (in person or on TV), the
same bar they're at, or whatever -- as long as it's a live event.

It's NOT for people to share vacation photos with their
friends and family, as they do on Facebook.

It's NOT for people to describe their daily habits to
complete strangers, as they do on Twitter.

It's NOT for people to share their location info with their
friends, as they do on Foursquare or Loopt.

The idea: People want to be able to discuss events with each
other that they're all watching or participating in together.
That's not something that Twitter does well -- even with
hashtags, it's a mess; and it's definitely not something that
Facebook status updates, when aggregated, do well.

Enter Hot Potato, which is basically a souped-up, well-designed
messaging system, with individual live streams dedicated to
single events.

Without going into unnecessary detail, here's how it works:

You download their iPhone app or go to their Website and sign in with your
Facebook credentials. (That's where you're likely to use your
real name, and be a real person -- important to Hot Potato.)

You create an event or join one already in progress. Say, for
instance, "Michigan vs. Michigan State," or "Pearl Jam concert,
Dallas," or "Gossip Girl season finale," or "Friday night at
Bar X."

You chat with other people watching or participating in the
event. Celebrate or trash talk athletes. Make fun of bad
haircuts. Laugh or crack jokes. Add your two cents. Or just read
what others are saying. Whatever.

You can snap photos with your iPhone and include them in the
stream.

You will get updates from people who you're Facebook friends
with -- presumably, you'd want to see what they're saying -- and
other popular updates from strangers at the event.

There's a fairly complex algorithm that goes into deciding which
updates you'll see, and we won't explain it here.

But the basic idea is that you won't get overwhelmed with
updates, the way you might in a chat room with dozens or hundreds
of participants. And the updates you see will be ones that are
meaningful to you, either because your real-world friends said
them, or because other people from the event thought they were
interesting.

This is something that's more easily experienced than explained,
so be sure to check out the Hot
Potato Website or iPhone app -- coming soon.

Hot Potato is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC, and was
founded by Justin Shaffer, a former MLB.com exec. Early investors
include RRE Ventures and First Round Capital.

It makes total sense for social circles (like ours) that are
iPhone-dominated.

The app, which we saw yesterday, is elegant, well-designed,
and simple enough for normal people to use it.

It appeals to over-sharers, voyeurs, AND normal people.

There's a zillion ways to make money, such as selling ads,
licensing the technology to companies like MLB.com for custom
products, selling transcripts to the company whose event is being
discussed, etc.

It's possible that Facebook could develop something similar and
knock Hot Potato out of the game. But for now, we think this one
has real promise.